CHRISTMAS GOODIES.

My wife left me in Amherst Books recently while she got a haircut, and when she came to pick me up she found me drooling over Mapping St. Petersburg: Imperial Text and Cityshape (Google Books, Princeton UP page, introduction), by Julie A. Buckler. I looked up dazedly and said “This book could have been written especially for me. This is why I need to visit actual bookstores; the internet is a wonderful thing, but it didn’t tell me this book existed.” She plucked it from my hands and announced that I had just solved the problem of what to get me; yesterday I unwrapped it, and I look forward to devouring it. I will report back when I have done so.
The other present of Languagehat relevance is a box of books that arrived on the 21st from my pal Jim Salant (author of Leaving Dirty Jersey, which I highly recommend if you don’t mind graphic descriptions of sex, violence, and obsessive drug use—it’s that rara avis, a drug memoir that’s neither tough-guy fake nor weepily repentant, told in straightforward, no-bullshit style and ending exactly where it should). Jim’s grandmother was getting rid of a bunch of Russian books, and he had told me to take my pick; this was the first installment, and it contained poetry collections by Delvig, Baratynsky, Tyutchev, and Sologub, Dostoevsky’s Zapiski iz mertvogo doma (Notes from the House of the Dead), a collection of stories and essays by Ilf and Petrov, a volume of Saltykov-Schedrin containing Istoriia odnogo goroda, Gospoda Golovlevy, and Skazki, a set of Leskov, a Kharms collection… And there’s more to come! I’ve already started acquainting myself with Delvig and Baratynsky, companions of Pushkin who were just names to me; now I’ve matched Delvig with one of my favorite obscure English poets, Walter Savage Landor—both are classically inspired poets who wrote unfashionably dry, impersonal lyrics with impeccable technique (I once wrote a pastiche of Landor beginning “Alas, Ianthe, thou that wast so fair…”).
I also got wine, food, an incredibly warm shirt, and from my excessively generous brother Eric a bunch of DVDs (four Almodóvars and The Motorcycle Diaries) and CDs, among other things. Oh, and we got a gift certificate to Kiva.org, a wonderful site that lets you provide microloans ($25) to small businesses in developing countries: “By choosing a business on Kiva.org, you can ‘sponsor a business’ and help the world’s working poor make great strides towards economic independence. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates from the business you’ve sponsored. As loans are repaid, you get your loan money back.” And then you can loan it to someone else. Let me tell you, it feels great to hit that button and know that you’re helping someone make their way out of poverty. Give it a try!

Comments

My friend Charles Perry, scholar of Levantine cuisinehttp://www.powells.com/biblio/62-9780907325918-1
and LA Times restaurant reviewer, did a nice poetry pastiche some years back:
Beautiful Rêveur
Softly, o’er the twilight,
Steals the silvr’y dawn.
Gently, in the moonlight,
Sleeps the shady lawn.
There my loved one waiting
Weeps in ceaseless grief.
There the sunset’s plaiting
Trembles o’er a leaf.
Oh, once my heart went roaming
Where the swallow loves to trill,
Up a streamlet… in the gloaming…
‘Mongst the vi’lets on the hill.
But the play of colors blending
In the balmy fields of youth
Stays not Fate’s dire sickle wending;
Sates no somber serpent’s tooth.
Ah, would that Love’s surrender,
Once given, would return
With kisses mild and tender
As a maiden’s bow’r of fern
Ere One’s sweet misty glances
From ‘neath some briny wave
The perfumed air entrances
Seek the solace of the grave!
My Indian maid is wandering aye
Through dreamy vales of noon,
Among the blushing buds of May,
‘Neath gushing plums of June.
But One whose brow is furrowed e’er
With cank’ring sorrows drear
Among the restless clouds so fair
Is floating–far, yet near!
–Charles Perry (“Classy Writing at Popular Prices”)

Landor pastiche! Landor pastiche! I want Landor pastiche!!!
Publish it under an assumed name if you must, and then send an email to all of us regular commentators (you have our email addresses, no?) telling us the URL, but let us get it into our hot little hands!
Or be sensible, and post it here on Hat, with a health warning at the top of the post, like, “See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Complete_bollocks (the home of the annotated version of Loomis’s “Classic Ode”).

All right, I dug through the deepest recesses of my filing cabinet to find the Landor pastiche—the things I do for my readers!
Alas, Ianthe, thou that wast so free
Art now bound under by horse-heavy clay,
And that loose hair that so delighted me
Is shorn at last for the grave Goddess’ pay.
No longer mayst thou smile at whom thou wilt
And take poor lovers’ fancy prisoner;
The last wine in the beaker now is spilt
And gone. Alas, Ianthe, for thy hair!
(Sun. 15 May ’77, late afternoon)
I also dug up “To Nature (after reading too much Keats),” which starts “Bringer of gentle warmth and pleasantness…” But I’ll spare you that.

And you can support my book habit without even spending money on me by following my Amazon links to do your shopping (if, of course, you like shopping on Amazon); I get a small percentage of every dollar spent while someone is following my referral links, and every month I get a gift certificate that allows me to buy a few books (or, if someone has bought a big-ticket item, even more). You will not only get your purchases, you will get my blessings and a karmic boost!

Favorite rave review, by Teju Cole:
"Evidence that the internet is not as idiotic as it often looks. This site is called Language Hat and it deals with many issues of a linguistic flavor. It's a beacon of attentiveness and crisp thinking, and an excellent substitute for the daily news."

From "commonbeauty"

(Cole's blog circa 2003)

All comments are copyright their original posters. Only messages signed "languagehat" are property of and attributable to languagehat.com. All other messages and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily state or reflect those of languagehat.com. Languagehat.com does not endorse any potential defamatory opinions of readers, and readers should post opinions regarding third parties at their own risk. Languagehat.com reserves the right to alter or delete any questionable material posted on this site.